Background
When the once great Triumph brand shuffled off this mortal coil with the whimpering Acclaim in 1984, most enthusiasts were relieved. How had it come to this? Only a few years before the TR6 was still the handsome king of affordable wind-in-the-hair motoring. And immediately after World War 2 Triumph had set its sights even higher, with an assault on Jaguar.
Now owned by the Standard Motor Company, Triumph’s Roadster was built between 1946 and 1949, and designed to go head-to-head with Jaguar’s SS, which, pre-war, had used Standard engines.
Post-war steel shortages meant that the Triumph’s body had to be built from aluminium, to the benefit of the car’s longevity and weight. The frame it sits on is hand-welded steel tubing too, which means the Triumph is uncommonly well-engineered and assembled, something those of you more used to Triumphs of the final quarter of the 20th century might find surprising.
There is tradition there, too. The bodywork might be made of aluminium, but it is resolutely old school in its looks, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your own aesthetic preferences.
It’s anything but staid and traditional inside though because its three-abreast seating meant that a floor-mounted gear lever wasn’t possible – and Triumph even fitted three windscreen wipers to ensure the centre passenger could keep tabs on what the driver was up to.
An additional two people could be carried in the dickey seat, a seat that even had its own windscreen – and fans of automotive trivia will appreciate the fact that it is the last production car to be fitted with this seating arrangement.
Power came from either a 1.8-litre or, from 1948, a two-litre engine. The changes gave slightly better torque and power, which helped drop the car’s 0-60mph time by a whopping seven seconds but raised its top speed by only 2mph, giving the bigger-engined car genuine 77mph performance.
